« Reply #43 on: 26 June 2011, 10:37 »
I put together my xenons for under £1k,
Is it just me that finds spending a grand on a pair of headlights obscene?
Wheels and tyres I can go along with, but headlights?
I'm going to reply to this in bold as it makes me look self important! 
It does sound an awful lot of money to spend on a set of headlights, but if you spec them with a new build you are subject to the VW rip off pricing that makes them about £300 dearer than an equivalent SEAT or Skoda with the same upgrade.
For those of us too poor to buy a brand new £30k shopping car it is nigh on impossible to find one with the factory fitted xenons under about £26k, which to my eyes is still way too much to spend on a second hand Golf. I digress.
I only wanted the xenons after having owned the car for a while I noticed that the light from the standard headlights was shocking, much worse for some reason than the mk5 which looks like it has similar headlight units. I've upgraded the bulbs which I never felt necessary to do with either of my mk5s, and the light is better but still not perfect. Also having spent too long on this forum 
there were all the retro fit xenon threads.
I live in the South West of England. 15 miles in either direction is a big moor, 10 miles South is the sea and in between and to the North of me are masses of windy roads that have no lighting, and hills, lots and lots of hills (which completely knacker fuel economy).
Factory fit xenons some with corner lighting which are ideal for those sort of roads. So I decided I needed a set.
It was whilst scouring ebay.de and further afield trying to complete the jigsaw of second hand parts needed from Mike's comprehensive list of parts that I kept coming accross these Dectane units which I initially hated. But every time I did a search for xenon parts I kept coming accross these lights as they are everywhere on ebay....and it got me thinking....they have projector lamps built into them, are an easy swap out with the standard lights.....and they're a bit different....and maybe a bit ugly.
Ideally I'd prefer to stick with OEM but I'm not willing to spend silly money on a set. As I said, I live in the South West - amongst the highest living costs in the country and the lowest wages (but I wouldn't swap that for anywhere else in the UK unless I was offered BIG wages). That means I can't afford to join the forum elite who can throw money at cars without a second thought 
But mostly the thread was put up because Asker and I often have a chat about how boring the forum is on a Saturday and so we look for ways of livening it up. Yesterday it worked a treat!!!
Never take anything I put on forums too seriously, I've suffered years of forum car bores arguing about things that are pretty irrelevant (rolling road figures immediately spring to mind!), so I like to put up a bit of light hearted stuff once in a while to encourage a bit of banter.
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‘25 8.5R, ‘23 8R, ‘20 8CS, ‘19 135iX, ‘19 TCR, ‘17 Ed40, ‘17 GTD, ‘15 7R, ‘13 GTI PP, ‘11 GTI, ‘09 GTI, ‘98 Ibiza Cupra, ‘05 GTI, ‘06 Polo GTI, ‘04 GT TDI, ‘05 Fabia vRS, ‘02 GTI T, ‘03 Ibiza TDI 130, ‘01 Leon 180, ‘89 mk2 16v, ‘99 Ibiza TDI, ‘96 VR6, ‘98 Ibiza TDI, ‘92 VR6, ‘88 mk2 8v, ‘92 Polo G40, ‘91 mk2 8v, ‘89 mk2 8v, 205 GTI 1.9, ‘83 mk1 GTI, ‘80 Scirocco GTI, plus some others I’ve forgotten
